Grand Divisions

Tennessee Equality Project seeks to advance and protect the civil rights of our State’s gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender persons and their families in each Grand Division.

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Lawsuits, Occupy Nashville, boys in make up, coalitions, Sheryl Crow--Fighting back in a red state

The majority of voters and the majority of elected state
officials are decidedly right of center in Tennessee.Whether a true majority of the state goes red is another
question.Every month Tennessee
finds a new way to become famous in the national media for embodying this bent
in our public policy.

We will likely have a red majority for at least ten years,
so I would assume court challenges to bad legislation and bad policy will
become business as usual for the foreseeable future.

Occupy Nashville:
Three members of TEP’s Nashville
Committee have been involved in the protests. So it’s a topic we watch very closely.By sustaining their protest over several
weeks, the participants have forced the hand of the state thereby showing the
public in a very concrete way how much our state government has been
overreaching since January.By ordering
the arrest of peaceful protesters on public property, the state has generated more disgust with state government than all the negative legislation that has appeared this year.Maybe it’s time more
issue specific strands of the progressive community take a page from this
example.

Kasey Landrum photo from WKRN

Make up:If you
really want to make some principals angry in Tennessee,
all you have to do is wear a shirt supportive of a Gay/Straight Alliance, as a student in East TN did, or wear make up, as Kasey Landrum a student in West TN did.Youth really are fighting on the front lines
of equality.It’s sad that some adults get
angrier about self-expression than low tests scores and other real problems in
our schools.Self-expression is becoming
a form of everyday fighting back in Tennessee.Its value, besides just letting a person be
comfortable in his or her own skin, is to make right wingers overreach in their
response, which has the effect of clarifying everyone’s rights.And that takes the issue beyond a mere
expression of the self and into the realm of commonly held values relating to
the First Amendment.

Coalitions:Sometimes
organizations have to focus strictly on their own issues and sometimes it is
beneficial to work in coalition and cast issues more broadly.I believe it is time for equality advocates,
labor advocates, and local government advocates to work together to advance
SB2121 and fight SB2149 in the Legislature.SB2121 would restore the right of cities and counties to add to their
non-discrimination ordinances, a right taken away from them by HB600 that
passed this year.SB2149 prevents cities
and counties from passing ordinances related to health insurance, family leave,
and wages.Labor, equality, and local
government defenders ought to make a pact to work together on both bills for
the common good.Creative alliances make
sense during these tough times.

Sheryl Crow:But I’ve
saved the real creativity for last.Maybe we need to get more creative in candidate recruiting.I think Sheryl Crow ought to run for the TN
House of Representatives from Williamson
County.She’s getting more involved in philanthropic efforts in Franklin and she’s had a
high profile as an activist on many issues.

I know what you’re saying.The Legislature isn’t big time enough for Sheryl Crow.But I would say our state government is
garnering a lot of media attention and it’s a good platform for someone to address the real hot button issues—attacks on teachers, voter disenfranchisement,
nullifying local equality ordinances, guns everywhere, defunding family
planning, and cutting unemployment benefits.If Sheryl Crow entered the race, she could shine even more light on what’s
going on in Tennessee.And if she won, I suspect it would be a
little bit harder to find a lead sponsor for some of the nut bar bills we’ve
seen over the last year.We might even
get a song out of it.So if you’re
reading, Ms. Crow, give it a shot, give us a chance!

There’s no doubt we need to fight back.I believe we will.The only question is how we’ll do it.

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Blog Purpose

This blog explores the divisions both grand and not so grand that confront Tennessee politics today. Grand Divisions is produced by members of the Tennessee Equality Project, TEP PAC, and the TEP Foundation. Contributors address a variety of issues at the federal, state, and local level, particularly as they shape the fight for equality in Tennessee. The opinions expressed on this blog do not necessarily represent the views or positions of TEP.